Track Listing

1. Dancing Queen
2. Knowing Me Knowing You
3. Take A Chance On Me
4. Mamma Mia
5. Lay All Your Love On Me
6. Super Trouper
7. I Have A Dream
8. Winner Takes It All
9. Money Money Money
10. SOS
11. Chiquitita
12. Fernando
13. Voulez Vous
14. Gimme Gimme Gimme
15. Does Your Mother Know
16. One Of Us
17. Name Of The Game
18. Thank You For The Music
19. Waterloo

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #783 in Music
• Released on: 2002-06-24
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Enhanced, Gold CD, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Anyone looking for the key to ABBA's enduring appeal should look no further than "Voulez Vous" and "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" for their answer. There was an innocence to the Swedish quartet, even when they were singing about one-night stands and the invitations to them. Gold establishes that the band, while appreciated as campy, were actually multifaceted in their execution. "S.O.S." has a raw urgency in its chorus, and "Does Your Mother Know" draws its energy from classic 1950s rock & roll. Likewise, you don't have to be Priscilla to swoon over "Mamma Mia" or "Dancing Queen". And when it comes to drama, those soaring vocals on "The Winner Takes It All" turn the song into a bitter anthem of every relationship that has ever fallen apart. The much-covered "Lay All Your Love on Me" is practically epic. --Steve Gdula

CD Description
Massive-selling, definitive greatest hits collection from arguably the greatest pure pop act of all time. The inspiration for countless male-female groups even to this day, their irresistibly catchy melodies, close harmonies and emotionally resonant lyrics have been imitated many times but never bettered. Includes all the classics like 'Dancing Queen', 'Money Money Money', 'Knowing Me Knowing You', 'The Winner TakesIt All' and the Eurovision-winning 'Waterloo'.

Customer Reviews

Pop classics to get those toes tapping
This collection and its companion (More Abba gold) contain all the essential Abba songs, although they omit some of my favorite album tracks. The biggest hits are generally to be found here, including Dancing queen (a number one in Britain, America and many other countries), Knowing me knowing you, Take a chance on me, Mamma mia, Super trouper, The winner takes it all, Fernando, The name of the game and Waterloo - all of which hit number one in Britain. Abba were much less successful in America, mainly because they did not put much effort into promoting themselves there.

Among the other great songs here, I have a dream was number two in Britain for a month (behind Pink Floyd's Another brick in the wall) and was later covered by American gospel singer Cristy Lane.

Most of Abba's songs are upbeat, even when they are singing about sadness, except for The winner takes it all. In that classic song, the emotions are laid bare, perhaps because their own marriages had already ended. Contrast that with Knowing me knowing you, which is also about a relationship break-up, but is more philosophical.

I was never wildly enthusiastic about Chiquitita or Gimmie gimmie gimmie, but it may be because I had such high expectations of Abba at the time those records were released. Still, they were top three hits in Britain, so obviously a lot of people enjoy them.

This is one of the strongest compilations available of my favorite pop group's music.

ABBA Platinum
Gold is an impressive and valuable mineral. But the most impressive and enduring of all is platinum and for that reason alone, this album should be retitled for future editions.

It is almost superfluous trying to review a body of the "greatest" work from arguably the best pop-act the music world has ever known. How do you evaluate a collection of songs that has seeped into the consciousness of pretty much anyone who was around in the mid to late 70's and which continues to impress even the most cynical music listener today?

The best that you can do is merely to remember the exhiliration on first hearing the soaring strings and harmonies of "Dancing Queen" and not quite believing a song could sound so beautiful. Or to recall the moment you thought you might stop breathing as you listened to the aching resignation and almost gorgeous pain in "The Winner Takes it all". Or to decribe the marvel when you first recognised the maturity and balance contained in the mini-opus "The name of the game". Or maybe to smile at the day you knew you had died and gone to pop heaven whilst being serenaded with the delightful suggestiveness of "If you change your mind, I'm the first in line, Honey I'm still free, take a chance on me". And I could go on in similar vein with and each and every one of the remaining tracks.

"ABBA Gold" is a only a sample of music that has transcended time and genres and (now it can be said) generations. A souvenir if you like of the joy and fun and the sheer brilliance of being alive which was contained in just about all of ABBA's 3 to 4 minute pop gems.

Hyperbole and exaggeration? Maybe. But the fact remains that ABBA's music and genius continues to impress people and critics all over the world with its timeless simplicity and complexity, its technical brilliance and a mastery of that most essential element of all great songs - the "hook". Add to that the glorious sounds of Agnetha and Frida harmonising together (every time) and you know that ABBA will never be bettered.

The real point to buying this album is not to be reminded of the days when a pop song could be equally sublime and fun nor to confirm in one sitting that ABBA were (and are) the absolute masters of songwriting and singing the perfect tune. The real point of this collection should be to lead you to discover the wealth of treasures contained in ABBA's lesser known albums and album tracks.

400 Million And Counting


Nineteen of ABBA's best songs are plenty, but you won't tire of them. It is amazing that four Swedes (Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus as writers and Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog as the main singers) could take such simple English cliches and turn them into pop music magic. Despite sometimes maddeningly simple lyrics, the song arrangements were unnervingly catchy and the multi-level layered compostions are fascinating. The keyboards and synthesizers were used in some of the more ingenious ways during the seventies to produce that unmistakeable ABBA sound. The energy and nearly anthemic enthusiasm eminating from each song marked them all as instant classics, no matter how jaded or synical the listener. It is doubtlful if you read the song list here that you would not know the melody. The one ironic thing about this groups phenomenal success, is that of over 400 million album sales, they only had one number one hit in the US - "Dancing Queen". But it is one heck of a great song.